Upgrading to A Divergent Life

My Mom Wished This On Me

My mom has always been quite annoyed with the bazillion questions I have asked her from the time I started talking even up till now. I ask a lot of questions, she has called me “snoopy” since I was a child, my snoopyness is still quite active. It’s not really being snoopy, I think I just want to be prepared. I don’t want to know other people’s business, I just need to know what is going on for my own peace of mind. I would watch neighbors, know all about people and events, I had to know what was in the mail, who was on the phone, when she was coming home, why she took so long if she wasn’t there when she said she would be and demand that she explain to me why the sky was blue. I am not surprised at all that our children are like this as well.

Usually, I am fine with the non-stop questions. (Kind of)

But the past few days, I am just tired of answering questions. Daniel has been asking me questions from the time he wakes up until he finally goes to sleep. Why is the light flickering? Why does the light blink? Why do my eyes have lights? Why is it dark outside? Why does the cart shake? Why is the road bumpy? Why is the sun gone? Why does the moon shine at night? Why can’t I eat cheese? Why did he laugh? Why did he cry? Why did the cat meow? Why does he move back and forth? Why do we move up and down? Why do we have a heart? Why don’t we have batteries? Can I have batteries? Why doesn’t the “e” make a sound in the word rope? Why can’t I play computer all day? Why can’t I have only banana and yogurt everyday?

Those are just a few.

All of the questions lead to more questions and then Ariel and Joshua add their questions too. Daniel doesn’t seem to be satisfied with the answers I give most of the time, hence the more questions. BUT he knows the answers to many of them already. ??? I get a lot of stares and strange looks in stores because Daniel will ask questions all about the conveyor belt, scanner, register etc…I have explained it to him in great detail but still he asks every time and I cannot leave any information out because he knows! Thanks to working at Target I helped set up the front end in new stores multiple times so I really do know how they are all set up and how they work. Other things I have had to research, like the history of fans, what is inside of electronics, why lights make noise, I don’t know just a lot of different things.

I am not complaining but I am definitely overloaded with questions right now.

The other day Daniel had just about tapped out all of my question answering ability and then he got fixated on getting an exercise ball. I got a new one the other day and he decided that he needed one and it had to be green. I tried to convince him to wait but it was not happening, so after dinner Daniel and I set out to get his new ball. Of course Joshua and Ariel needed one too, Target only had one ball in the correct size, it was green, it was Daniel’s. I then had to take him to Wal-Mart with me, I really despise that place for the sensory overload alone. We actually made record time and I managed to answer a billion questions outside and inside the store.

I was just too tired and said “Because it was nervous.” He looked at me like I was insane. Then he said “How was it nervous?” I tried to come up with a story about the cart being nervous and then started laughing at myself because I knew it was not going to work. I had to explain to him about the wheels, the road, what the road is made of, why the road is made of rock, why we no longer have dirt roads, how water makes mud, how cement trucks work, I don’t even remember the last thing I answered but I finally said “Does that make sense?”. He said “Yes, it does.”

And for the last two minutes of the drive home it was quiet.

It didn’t last long, we got home and he had more questions like “Why did you say that the cart was nervous?” :-/ Oh, well I have to say that I would have him ask all the questions rather than not, but sometimes….sometimes, I just need the two minutes of his quiet resolution. All three of the kids ask questions and I do think of it as a good thing but there are times that it is just a lot. My mom now says sorry for wishing me to have a child like me, not in a bad way she is joking. It makes me wonder if her wish came true, did it really take three of them to make up for one of me?? Ha ha ha Just Kidding! David may agree with that though, I am a non-stop question asker and I am also a skeptic of people’s answers. I think our kids have this too. Once someone has answered my question I immediately go into “How did you get that information?” or “How do you know that?” David will laugh at my daily internet searches. He says that he can figure out my frame of mind, by checking my history of internet search for the day. I think our kids may be the same way. It’s better than no questions I guess. I secretly like that our kids challenge us.

So I guess I will be happy about that and cherish each two minutes of peace…when they come.

David and I have both been trying that with him. If he asks questions that we know for a fact he knows, we will ask it back to him and he will say “No, you answer me.” But we have tried to continue to ask the question back at him, this is recently though. Mainly this week! I told him last night that he needed to try to figure out how his airplane works on his own. He did come back with an answer but then asked another group of questions. I think your questions are good ones I will try them today. Or maybe I will just start having the kids ask each other! Just kidding!

Since Daniel is about a year behind with language, David thinks that he is in the “Why” phase and he is realizing the power of words and actions. I think it may be a good theory and I am very thankful for all the language but I am not a walking encyclopedia or google! Ha ha ha

You know, before I even read AM’s comment, I was thinking the same thing about asking Daniel questions or posing his questions back to him. I think that may be because the book I’m reading about communicating with NT kids was just focusing on not always answering kids questions for them in the latest chapter. At least you’re learning about a lot of things in the meanwhile

That last sentence made me laugh, Diane! Oh, yes, the things I have learned from my little guy are many.

I would probably never have known that there are dwarf planets in the asteroid belt between the rock planets and gas planets (or even that there was a way to classify the planets into two types and that there was an asteroid belt between them).

I also would never have noticed that the heart on the girls’ headboard in the Powerpuff Girls cartoons was not there in the original movie. I’ll leave it up to you which fact is more important!!

You both are right in your thinking! We have been doing this with Daniel and he is answering himself. At times he will answer the question with a question to us, like “Is the light white? The light is white?” But he is talking to himself about it and then asking us for confirmation of his judgment. I was so impressed because yesterday he actually was coming up with his own explanation like ‘I think the boys is angry at his chair. Is he angry at his chair?” I explained to him that is wasn’t actually the chair but the person who upset him. Then he came up with “The man made him angry and he got mad at the chair?” These are some big observations for him. So we are keeping with asking him the questions.

I know at least I am learning some new things, right?? I wish they were my special interest though!